


Falling Into Your Nightmare

by Aaronlisa



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Episode Related, F/M, Nightmares, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 04:20:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10712058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronlisa/pseuds/Aaronlisa
Summary: Willow stumbles into someone else's nightmare.





	Falling Into Your Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> This is set during 1x10 "Nightmares" and it's not the first time I played around in this episode. It was also written for LJ's 500themes (terror in the night), 2x5obsessions (broken mirror), fivebyfiction (red) and 50darkfics (dirty).

Her stomach is still twisted in knots from having been up on stage and not knowing the words. As she pushes through the thick red velvet curtains, Willow trips on the length of the green silk kimono and she falls onto the dirty floor of an abandoned warehouse. She nervously swallows as she looks upwards and discovered that it's now night when she looks out the dirty windows. She doesn't recognize thing nightmare and she wonders how bad things have gotten since she split up with the others if she's fallen into someone else's nightmare. At least with her own nightmares, she knows what to expect (as terrifying as they are), but this someone else's bad dream and she doesn't know what to expect and it scares her.

Willow manages to stand up and she almost screams when she realizes that she's surrounded by vampires in a rather new and sudden development. One that she's not particularly fond of. She bites her lower lip to keep the scream in and tastes the bitter taste of the red lipstick that's covering her lips. It reminds her that she's completely defenceless. If she had been dressed in her normal clothes, she'd have her bag with her and in it is a stake and a cross. She reflexively takes a step backward and hits a solid wall. A moment ago, it was a curtain, now her only exit is a doorway that she's blocked off from. Somehow Willow doubts that Giles, Buffy or Xander are going to burst through that door that's across the warehouse floor. She also doubts that shell be able to run fast enough to escape the pack of snarling vampires that's closing in on her. 

She closes her eyes and tries not to let her terror consume her. This might not be her nightmare but she's the one stuck living it. When she opens her eyes. the vampires are even closer and Willow resigns herself to her fate. There's no opening for her to duck through to try to run away. One of the vampire lunges at her and she sinks to the ground, her hands desperately trying to find a weapon amidst the debris on the dirty floor. She cuts her hand on a shard of broken mirror. It's not much but it's _something_ that she can use. Willow grabs it and slashes it at a vampire. The vampire snarls at her but it doesn't do anything to deter it. 

Before she can react as another vampire lunges towards her, the vampires scatter and when she looks up, Willow sees Angel but she immediately knows that he's not really Angel. This vampire might look like Buffy's friend but it's not him. This vampire, who's dressed in tight leather pants and a red silk shirt, reeks of evil. Willow almost wishes that it was just her and the pack of vampires instead of this Angel look-alike. 

"An-angel," Willow stutters. (She wasn't going to say anything but the words fall out of her mouth.) 

The vampire smirks at her as his face shifts from human to vampire. 

"Nice guess darlin' but it's Angelus." 

He looks at her if as if the name is supposed to mean something to her but it doesn't. Angelus shrugs as he reaches down to pull her up and Willow tightly clutches the shard of broken glass, even though it hurts her hand. Angelus hauls her up to her feet but before she can attack him, his other hand is gripping hers tightly, the broken mirror cuts into her hand as his grip tightens. She looks down at their hand and she sees a drop of blood hit the floor, when he loosens his grip, she drops the mirror. It hits the ground with a tinkle and Willow watches as her only weapon shatters into even more pieces. 

"What were you going to do with that? Were you going to scratch me with it?" 

"N-no," Willow stammers. 

Angelus picks up her hand and licks at the wound. She really doesn't like where this nightmare is going. 

"Don't lie to me little girl," Angelus warns her. "Were you going to try to cut me with that?" 

"Yes," Willow admits with a nod. 

She's shaking in his grip and she just wants for this horrible nightmare to end one way or another. This shouldn't be happening but for some bizarre reason, everyone's nightmares are coming true and she's going to die in some other person's nightmare. It's not even her dream and it just seems unfair. She blinks her eyes to stop from crying. Angelus moves so that he can access her neck. Willow realizes that as he licks her neck that this is it. 

"Just get it over with," Willow says, her voice firm. 

She's not afraid anymore when Angelus pulls away from her. He looks at her quizzically and she looks away from him. She doesn't think her bravery will last if she looks into those golden eyes. And she's determined that if this is how it's going to end, then she's going to be brave. The door swings open and for a moment, Willow hopes that it's her friends but it turns out to be someone else. She's confused because it's Angel walking through the door, before she can process what's going on, Angelus lets her go and starts snarling at Angel.

"Run Willow," Angel commands her. 

"Don't run too far, darlin'," Angelus commands her. "I'm not quite done with you yet." 

When it comes to actually running away now that the opportunity has presented itself to her, Willow finds that she's paralysed. She wants to run but something seems to hold her in place and she wonders if this is because she's stuck in someone else's nightmare? 

The pair of snarling vampires circle one another, lashing out at one another with fists. Neither seems able to get the upper hand until they stumble into her, knocking her to the ground and Angel (or is it Angelus) lifts up the vampire that's half on her and throws him across the room. Before the vampire can hit the ground, he disappears and normally this would worry her but right now they're stuck in the unreality of nightmares and dreams where things don't always make sense. 

"Are you alright?" Angel ask as he helps her to stand up. 

Willow tiredly nods at him. She feels strangely naked in her outfit from the opera nightmare, especially since Angel is taking in her appearance. Willow's suddenly aware of how thin the silk is. He looks away from her and scans their surroundings. 

"What's going on?" Angel asks her. 

She briefly tells him about nightmares turned into reality and how Xander and Giles had split up with her. She glosses over her nightmare and the one she found herself in. Angel agrees to help her find the others. but he won't commit to finding out what's causing the nightmares. Not that Willow can blame him since he's over two hundred years old and she suspects that several of his nightmares could be deadly to someone like her. 

The pair are silent as they make their way out of the warehouse, and Willow doesn't say anything as Angel holds tightly on to her hand. She feels marginally safer with her hand enveloped in his much larger one. There's a part of her that wants to ask a lot of questions but she's not that comfortable asking Angel about his nightmare and why she was in it. She decides that there are probably some things better left unanswered. 

The warehouse door opens into the somewhat familiar hallways of Sunnydale High School and Angel looks confused. He mutters something about how this doorway led to somewhere else a few moments ago and Willow just shrugs in response. How the backstage of the auditorium led to a dirty, abandoned warehouse is beyond her and she's not really in the mood to speculate how physics actually work in this bizarre reality. If Angel is surprised by her lack of verbosity, he keeps it to himself. 

In front of them, there's a snarling noise and Angel immediately pulls her so that she's standing behind him and he's facing the snarling noise. A girl goes running by as a dog that looks like a Pomeranian goes chasing after her. Angel looks at her and gives Willow a small smile and for a moment she giggles. Everything is forgotten in that brief moment of ridiculousness. But then Willow has to go and feel bad immediately after giggling - someone could find her nightmare of singing opera silly too. 

"It's okay to laugh," Angel says. "I think it might be the safest thing to do right now." 

"It doesn't feel right," Willow says. "My nightmares are probably pretty funny to someone else as well."

"Maybe," Angel replies. But he doesn't sound convinced. 

They start moving again and suddenly they're at an intersection that's brightly lit with muted sunshine. And they hear a rustling noise. Angel grips her hand, stopping her from moving forward and then Xander is in front of them. And everything feels normal for one brief moment. Xander starts to tell her where he's been and when Willow looks behind her, Angel is gone as is the way that they had come. 

She sighs, she really hates this whole nightmare ridden world. When Xander and her start to look for Giles and Buffy, Willow keeps quiet about the whole Angel incident. She's not sure what to make of it and there's no point in talking about it to anyone. 

((END))


End file.
